Because of the inherent advantages of a fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) network, such as a super-high bandwidth, a low cost and a strong anti-interference performance, it is widely applied in various aspect of people's life. The FTTx network includes an active optical network (AON) and a passive optical network (PON). The PON is deployed more because of its low cost.
Reference is made to FIG. 1 which is a schematic diagram of a PON network according to the present disclosure. The PON network includes: a central office 1, several optical splitters 2 connected to the central office via optical fibers, and multiple optical network units 3 connected to the optical splitters 2 via optical fibers. Generally, each PON network has a limited optical split ratio which constrains the maximum number of optical network units connected to the same optical splitter.
In a PON network, the location of the central office 1 is fixed, the locations of optical network units are fixed because they are generally arranged at home, and only a location of the optical splitter is changeable. The total deployment cost of the whole PON network mainly depends on the cost of optical fibers and the labor cost of trenching and laying optical fibers. Therefore, it is desired to solve the problem of how to properly determine the number of the optical splitters and the locations of the optical splitters, to minimize a total length of optical fibers in the PON network.